


A (Not So) Perfect Boyfriend

by purplepaper



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: M/M, Slow-Built Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-22
Updated: 2014-12-22
Packaged: 2018-03-02 19:55:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2824190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purplepaper/pseuds/purplepaper
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yamaguchi thinks that Tsukishima should get himself a girlfriend before the school year is over, but the clever middle-blocker seems to have something else in mind. And now Yamaguchi has to suffer up the consequences.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A (Not So) Perfect Boyfriend

It was all started when Valentine's Day came.

As per usual, much to the third years' amusement and the second years' jealousy, there were always bunch of valentine gifts delivered to the most popular member of the team, Kageyama and Tsukishima. Some were given directly, some were stuffed on their shoe locker, and the rest was piled upon the small hands of their new manager, Yachi, all was to be sent to the said players. Usually Kageyama ignored all of them, didn't even bother to see through who sent it. He dumped the sweets to Hinata while he burned the letters, deeming it a waste of his precious time for volleyball.

Tsukishima, on the other hand, was less ferocious at handling the situation. He accepted the letters, eating some of the sweets (even though most of it would end up in Yamaguchi's fridge no matter what), then he politely declined all those going out invitations. He wasn't as fanatic as Kageyama towards volleyball, he just didn't feel like cutting up more his already-not-so-much free time for dating.

Still, Yamaguchi thought it must be inevitable. Sooner or later, Tsukishima would notice one of those girls being cute or smart, then he would get himself a girlfriend. They were normal teenagers after all.

"I think Katagiri-san is a pretty girl," Yamaguchi remarked casually on their way back home from practice, his bag was heavy from loading ninety percent of Tsukishima's sweets. "And she's in class 5, so she must be smart too. She would suit you very well."

Tsukishima gave his friend a blank look. "I don't care," he deadpanned.

"You weren't this rude when you were rejecting those girls."

"Your point?"

"You'll eventually have a girlfriend, you know," Yamaguchi looked at his friend with a rare occasion of serious expression on his face. "I don't see any point in dragging it out when you know it would happen someday. Beside, it's not like it would disrupt our friendship anyway, so why not?"

The taller boy just stared at his friend for a while before he exhaled softly. If it was other people asking, he would just sneer at them for being so nosy, and told them to mind their own business. Perhaps adding a little more jab about they were just being jealous of him, and they would leave it at that. But it was Yamaguchi, and he knew that the freckled boy would never stop asking unless he answered.

"I just don't feel like dating," he said nonchalantly. "Girls always demand a lot of attention, and my time is kind of limited already with homework and volleyball. I certainly hope you don't expect me to somehow make dating fits in that tight schedule. It's formidable."

Yamaguchi pondered this statement, trying to see the logic his friend seemed to cling onto. He frowned.

"But you'll always have homework," he said a-matter-of-factly. "And even if you'd stop your club activity once you're a third-year, there will be university preparation that takes a lot of time. Are you planning to go through high school without having a girlfriend?"

He sounded horrified, but Tsukishima just shrugged.

"I don't see the problem."

"No way, Tsukki! That's not fair!"

The blond raised an eyebrow. "How is it not fair?" He paused for a moment before adding as an afterthought. "And for whom, on that matter?"

"It's not fair for us, guys who need to work their asses off to get a girlfriend. Even that's only if we're lucky enough," Yamaguchi explained. He tried to sound petulant, but the small chuckle that slipped past his lips was enough of a clue that he actually found the situation amusing. "Man... you have no idea what Tanaka-san and Noya-san would give to have even just half that popularity of yours, but you make it sounds like it's only a burden."

"To me, it really is a burden," the bespectacled boy replied. "It's way more exhausting to maintain a girlfriend than practicing spikes and blocks with Bokuto-san, and it should be saying something."

Yamaguchi winced a little, remembering that practice with the Fukurodani's ace was practically endless.

"I guess," he conceded, trying to imagine Tsukishima being dragged around by some girl on dates and he suppressed a snort. "But it's still a shame you don't make advantage out of your boyfriend material like that. It's such a waste."

There was no immediate response from Tsukishima, and it was only after a while Yamaguchi realized that the middle-blocker also stopped walking. He halted his steps, and he turned his body slightly to look at his friend that was standing a couple of feet away.

"Tsukki?" Yamaguchi inquired softly. "What is it?"

"You think I have a boyfriend material?" His tone wasn't incredulous, one which he usually use if somebody was saying something stupid. He just genuinely sounded a bit curious.

"Well... most of girls certainly do," Yamaguchi answered, tilting his head to the side a little. "And I think I agree with them."

Tsukishima was tall, handsome, smart, and had that aloof air around him which made him looked really cool. In short, he had everything a girl would run her money for. Tsukishima didn't need to ask if those were what Yamaguchi labeled as 'boyfriend material'. After all, people didn't call him clever out of nothing.

He started walking again, but he made his way to approach Yamaguchi instead of heading to the direction of his home.

"You know, I think this dating stuff may not sound that bad after all," he mused while looking at his friend, fingers caressing his chin in a contemplating manner. "You certainly are a better candidate than those loud squealing girls who thought that I'm some kind of prize to bag."

Yamaguchi blinked once, twice, and just three times more for a good measure. He heard him alright, but he thought the words didn't make sense. It wasn't like Tsukishima to say something illogical, so he asked.

"Did you just... did you just ask me out?"

"I did," Tsukishima replied easily, as if he didn't just say something similar to exclaiming that UFO was real.

Yamaguchi found it was pretty hard for his average brain to process because he suddenly felt quite dizzy.

"Why?" he pressed. "You were like you thought dating girls was the last thing you wanted to do, and suddenly you wanted dating guys?"

"Not guys, but you," Tsukishima said. "I've known you for so long, you're the most tolerable person I've ever met, and if dating is something I absolutely have to do, I'd rather date you than anybody else."

Yamaguchi didn't really know what he should feel right then. On one side he was happy because Tsukishima practically claimed him to be the person on top of his small collection of acquaintances, but on the other hand he was a bit frustrated since the lanky teen seemed really didn't want to bother with anything that required more of his effort.

What a brat.

"So," Tsukishima said, pulling Yamaguchi back from the deep jungle of his thought. It was quite a tangled mess so Yamaguchi need some time to focus on what Tsukishima said next. "What do you say? Or do you need some time to think about it?"

Yamaguchi finally let out a low snort. "The hell, Tsukki. I'm not a girl," he scoffed before smiling a little. "I guess that's kind of the point anyway. Beside, do I have any choice other than to say 'yes'?"

"You can always say 'no'," Tsukishima allowed himself to smirk slightly, one that bore no malice and just purely teasing. "Even though I doubt that you'd want to say that."

The shorter of them laughed. Always the cocky bastard, Yamaguchi thought while shaking his head. He supposed what Tsukishima said was true, but he had no intention in letting the other teen know about it. He was doing the world a favor by not stretching that big ego even further.

"Well, okay then."

So they were dating.

Not much had changed since they established the knowledge that they weren't just 'friends' anymore. Yamaguchi himself didn't have any desire to actually change their dynamic even if he had the privilege to do so. He was more like rolling with whatever Tsukishima wanted, so it never occurred to him to take an initiative. He was fine with the way they were, so he didn't really need to ask for anything more.

That was why he was pretty surprised when Tsukishima asked if he actually wanted to go out on a date.

"Er... not that I don't appreciate your consideration in this so-called relationship," Yamaguchi eyed his childhood friend warily. "But what brought this on?"

They were sitting on the floor in Tsukishima's room, the blond was reading a magazine while the other was shuffling through the rack of video games. Yamaguchi paused in his search, his body twisted halfway to look at his friend behind him. Tsukishima was also looking at him so their gaze met.

"It seems the right thing to do," he shrugged noncommitally, shifting his eyes to glance to his magazine once more. "We've been going out for three weeks and we never go for a date even for once. I thought you would want that."

"We never do any other boyfriend-y thing anyway, so I think you don't have to bother," Yamaguchi waved his hand before turning his back to resume his previous searching.

He could feel Tsukishima kept looking at his back, but he tried to ignore it. It was when he heard a rustling sound that he looked back again, only to see Tsukishima put his magazine away in order to give him a full attention.

"What?" Yamaguchi didn't know why, but he felt a little bit nervous at the scrutiny his friend was showing.

"Do you actually want to do the other kind of boyfriend-y thing?" he inquired lightly. His look never wavered even when Yamaguchi started fidgeting.

"Uh... why do you ask?"

"Just curious."

"Well, you see..." the brunette suddenly felt a little warm on his ears. "It's not like that I want to... or, yeah... I might want to, but only if you wanted to as well. It's just... umm..."

That was the moment when he finally realized the full weight of their current relationship. Here he was, sitting on the floor of his boyfriend's room, talking about whether or not he wanted to hold hands in the hallway, or if he would like a little goodbye kiss on the way home from school.

Yamaguchi took a deep breath to calm his nerves, and he should award himself a gold medal for being able to hold Tsukishima's gaze and speaking without choking on his own spit.

"I'm fine with the way we are, Tsukki," he said slowly, a fond smile was ghosting over his lips at the thought of Tsukishima was actually trying to be a good boyfriend despite his initial refusal to be one just because he thought the whole ordeal was troublesome. "You date me because you don't want to be subjected to such things, and I'm okay with it, since there's no way in hell I would make this relationship pointless if I make you do things you don't actually like. If you insist, we could do boyfriend-y things like date and stuff, but don't force yourself."

Tsukishima didn't give a response this time, he was just looking at Yamaguchi for a long time before he looked up to stare at the ceiling. Yamaguchi smiled a little before turning back once more, mind already forgetting what games he wanted to find at the first place when he heard the soft voice behind him.

"Alright."

Later when he was heading home, Yamaguchi was standing on the front door bidding him a good night, when Tsukishima held his hand and leaned down, placing a soft kiss on his lips.

He couldn't sleep well that night. He could still feel the light press of Tsukishima's lips on his own, his low voice when he was murmuring a good night still reverberating in his ears. He snatched up his blanket to cover up his burning face, fully determined not to let Tsukishima knew even in his dream that Yamaguchi slept with a stupid smile on his face just because of a simple kiss.

All things went on quite smoothly.

After that, Tsukishima would take him out to watch a movie every now and then, or went shopping together with a simple dinner afterwards. Sometimes he also walked Yamaguchi home after school, giving him a light kiss on the lips before they parted ways. They didn't exactly hide their couple status, they just didn't make any announcement about it. Tsukishima said he'd like their teammates to figure it out on their own, but Yamaguchi doubted it was going to happen anytime soon.

Not because he thought Karasuno team was full of airheads, it was more like to the fact that they were barely look like a couple at all.

To other people, having Tsukishima for a boyfriend would be a challenge on its own. Something like jealousy was unavoidable when your boyfriend was a very popular person. Every time they turned into a corner, there would always be his fans giggling, whispering, and pointing into their way. Being his friends for years had made Yamaguchi practically immune to those thing, and that was certainly another plus point to make himself a better candidate than anyone else for Tsukishima to date.

Yamaguchi certainly would've never guessed that he could feel jealous even though he was used to those kind of things.

It was on their way back after another joint practice before the third-years graduated with the other member of Fukurodani Academy Group, when he heard Hinata mentioned something to Kageyama about Tsukishima being a bit different when he was with Kuroo, the middle-blocker from Nekoma. He said that maybe even the insufferable brat like Tsukishima was a normal teenager after all, and right now he was very likely crushing on the captain of The Cats. Kageyama said that Hinata was just being a dumbass, but it gave Yamaguchi something to wonder about.

It wasn't like Yamaguchi was always deeply in love with Tsukishima. It was the kind of thing that slowly built up by time, after spending quite a lot of time doing lovey-dovey things with him. Sure he found Tsukishima was attractive, but it wasn't the attraction itself that made Yamaguchi agreed to date him at the first place. It was just the thing that drawn him more to the blond as the day went by.

Yamaguchi was never deluding himself, thinking that Tsukishima had a feeling for him when he asked him out three months ago. Even when they held hands while watching a movie, or when he kissed him on his doorstep. Tsukishima dated him out of convenience, and Yamaguchi was fine with it. It didn't mean that Yamaguchi was desperate, that he didn't mind having relationship even if they didn't have mutual feelings just for the sake of being Tsukishima's boyfriend. He was doing the blond a favor, really, so realizing that he was just a normal human and having an ugly feeling reared up its head had caught him a little bit of guard.

Slowly but surely, he had fallen for his boyfriend and now he had no idea how to fix that.

"Hey, Tsukki..."

"Hmm?"

"Do you like Kuroo-san?"

Yamaguchi was lying on his stomach on his own bed, looking at his boyfriend who was sitting on the floor with his back leaning on the bedside, sports magazine opened in his lap. It was the day when Tsukishima went to visit him, and right now the tall boy was giving him a questioning look.

"Kuroo-san? You mean the one that's from Nekoma?"

"Is there any other Kuroo-san we both know about?"

"Who knows?" he shrugged before looking back to his magazine. "And no, I don't like a cocky bastard like him."

"Like you're one to talk."

"At least he's an even bigger bastard than me."

"Alright," Yamaguchi chuckled, before he folded his arms and resting his chin on his knuckles. "What about a crush then?"

Tsukishima stopped flipping through the pages and Yamaguchi could feel his stomach tightening slightly. Slowly he turned around, and the freckled teen didn't know what to think upon seeing the unreadable expression on Tsukishima's face.

"What was that?"

Yamaguchi knew that he heard him just fine, but he decided there would be no harm in elaborating further.

"Hinata said that he thought you might be having a crush on Kuroo-san," Yamaguchi was a little bit surprised at how calm he sounded. "I just wanted to know if it's true or not."

"And do you really want to know?"

Yamaguchi did a double-take at that, thinking about the implication in that question. Did he really want to know if his boyfriend was having a crush on somebody else? He thought about his feeling; wouldn't he be hurt if he knew Tsukishima liked a person that was not him?

"Yeah, tell me."

Just like he couldn't help falling for Tsukishima, there was nothing he could do if the other boy had a feeling for the black-haired captain. He just didn't like to keep guessing, having to keep coming back to that train of thought whenever he had time for spacing out. The least he could do with the revelation was saving him the headache, if not the heartache.

Tsukishima looked at him right in the eye and his voice betrayed nothing when he answered.

"I do."

The faint throb was fairly noticeable, but wasn't big enough for it to actually hurt. Yamaguchi wanted to laugh a little, he was so vain for thinking that Tsukishima would lie to him, that he would try not to hurt Yamaguchi's feeling. He wasn't exactly sad, or upset, he just thought that everything was bound to happen so all he could do was to accept it.

"So..." the corner of his lips was stretched up in a little smile. "What are you going to do about it? Confess to him or what?"

Tsukishima gave him a low snort. "That's not going to happen," he shook his head a little before coming back to his reading. "Not now, not then, not ever."

"Aw, don't be so shy. You want me to say that to him?"

"I'm not, and don't be stupid. I don't want to have anything to do with that guy."

"I don't get it," Yamaguchi was entirely confused now. "You have a crush on Kuroo-san but sound like you don't like him at all. Can you even have a crush on somebody you don't like?"

"Too bad we can," Tsukishima sighed lowly before he sent his boyfriend a dirty look. "Stop talking about him already, you're ruining my mood."

"So... you don't want to date him?"

"Why would I? He's an epitome of trouble and you should understand it by now that if I asked you out so I could avoid that said trouble, there's no way I would date him knowing all of that. Do I look like that suicidal to you?"

Yamaguchi couldn't suppress his laughter so he did just that, rolling over so he could hold his stomach that was beginning to hurt. He only stopped to catch his breath when there was a shadow looming over him, so he looked up to see Tsukishima had joined him on the bed and now he was hovering on top of him.

"I told you to stop talking about him."

"...sorry. Sorry, Tsukki."

"You dare to laugh at me too. Should I punish you for this?"

"Aw, c'mon. Give me a break. I just suffered a low case of a heartbreak and you--"

The rest of his complain was silenced when Tsukishima's lips descended upon his. He responded automatically, closing his eyes and tilting his head up so he could meet the blond's movements in sync. He could feel long fingers were working their way to unbuttoned his shirt, and he shivered lightly when their skin came in contact. Flash of thoughts were running through his mind, but for once he couldn't bring himself to dwell on them when his boyfriend was using his hand and fingers for something Yamaguchi had never thought would happen in his life.

They made love for the first time that night. Both were inexperienced so they made a lot of mess, and Yamaguchi felt his hips were completely paralyzed. Although the face Tsukishima made when he suggested that he would top next time was certainly worth the slap on his already sore ass. Tsukishima decided to spend the night, and as they snuggled up to share the cover, Yamaguchi couldn't stop the smile that was slowly creeping up on his face.

"I love you, Tsukki."

The middle-blocker murmured something in his ear, before he ordered him to sleep. Even though that wasn't something people would normally say in response for a love statement, but it made Yamaguchi felt happy nonetheless.

"Thank you."

Yes, Tsukishima probably wasn't the most perfect boyfriend out there, but he took Yamaguchi out for movies and dinner, he kissed him everyday on the way home from school, and even if he hadn't reciprocated Yamaguchi's feeling yet, he still showed his gratitude for having somebody who loved him just for the way he was.

And it was all that mattered.

.  
.  
.  
FIN


End file.
